Bangalore: Amid controversy over his appointment, retired High Court Judge Chandrashekaraiah was on Sunday sworn-in as second UPA Lokayukta in Karnataka.

Governor H R Bhardwaj administered the oath of office to the 70-year-old Chandrashekaraiah, who had also served as the President of Karnataka State Consumer Redressal Commission, at Raj Bhavan.

He comes in the place of Justice (Retd) R Gururajan, who resigned in October citing health reasons.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S Suresh Kumar, Home and Transport Minister R Ashoka, JDS leader H D Revanna were prominent among those who attended the ceremony, where Chief Minister D V Sadananda was conspicuous by his absence.

Chandrashekaraiah was reportedly allotted a 4,000 square feet prime site in Judicial Layout in 1997, when he already owned a house in Banashankari-II stage, allegedly in violation of housing society bye laws.

Earlier on Saturday, he sought to downplay the issue, pointing to a Supreme Court ruling which upheld dismissal of a case challenging the owning of sites by the judges, and questioned "raking up" the controversy. Chandrashekaraiah said he was not the only judge who was allotted a site.

Chandrashekaraiah served as Judge of the Karnataka High Court between 1995 and 2004 and as the Commission President between 2004 and 2009.